Retail Business Consultant

Market entry

Below are some critical points that have to be reviewed when preparing the market entry for a retail business. Are this the questions you consider when you decide to enter a new market?

Do I find there the right customers for my business concept/store concept?

Can I adapt the concept to the market needs?

Market entry approach acquisition of a local chain or store opening one by one?

Do I find the right places and prices I seek for opening the stores? Malls or stand alone?

Where do I start, capital or the smaller cities?

Office, Bucharest or rest of the country?

Management local or foreign?

How do I find the right partners for my business? Networking?

HR and payroll own staff or outsourcing?

Accounting own staff or outsourcing?

Logistics, own a warehouse or rent a warehouse, how to start and when does it make sense to change to change?

Assortment, centralized acquisition or mixed (local sourcing)?

What is my short term objective – market share, profit or brand awareness; is the strategy aligned?

Budgeting – short and mid term, worse case scenario, what resources do I have?

Organizational chart – where to focus the resources short and mid term? Who are the key people that you need to hire first?

Although there are a lot of similarities when entering new markets and the expertize of an international team is very useful, there are also a lot of particularities and knowledge which are known by the players in the market. Finding in the beginning the right people to start with can be essential to the succes of the new market.

Contact me to have a discussion about the Romanian non-food retail market!